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Florida Constitution Revision Commission

PUB 700768: Instant Runoff Voting for State Elected Offices by Caleb Michael Rodrigues

ARTICLE VI: SUFFRAGE AND ELECTIONS, Section 1. Regulation of elections.

SECTION 1.Regulation of elections.

All elections by the people shall be by direct and secret vote. General elections shall be determined by a majority of votes cast. Registration and elections shall, and political party functions may, be regulated by law; however, the requirements for a candidate with no party affiliation or for a candidate of a minor party for placement of the candidate's name on the ballot shall be no greater than the requirements for a candidate of the party having the largest number of registered voters.

ARTICLE VI: SUFFRAGE AND ELECTIONS, New Section.

Catchline: Instant Runoff Voting

 

Ballots shall be simple and easy to understand, and shall allow a voter to rank candidates for an office in order of choice.  

The procedure for counting ranked choices is as follows:

 

  1. The first choice marked on each ballot shall be counted initially by election officials.
  2. If any candidate receives a majority of the first choices, that candidate shall be declared elected.
  3. If no candidate receives a majority of first choices, the Secretary of State shall conduct the instant runoff consisting of additional rounds of ballot counting.
  4. In every round of counting, each ballot is counted as one vote for that ballot's highest ranked advancing candidate. “Advancing candidate” means a candidate for that office who has not been eliminated.
  5. A candidate receiving a majority of valid votes in a round is declared elected.  If no candidate receives a majority of valid votes in a round, the candidate with the fewest votes shall be eliminated, and all ballots shall be recounted.
  6. This process of eliminating the candidate with the fewest votes and recounting all ballots shall continue until one candidate receives a majority of the valid votes in a round.
  7. If a ballot has no more available choices ranked on it, that ballot shall be declared “exhausted” and not counted in that round or any subsequent round.  Ballots skipping one number shall be counted for that voter's next clearly indicated choice, but ballots skipping more than one number will be declared exhausted when this skipping of numbers is reached. Ballots with two or more of the same number shall be declared exhausted when such duplicate rankings are reached unless only one of the candidates with the duplicate ranking is an advancing candidate.

 

This Act shall go into effect the 1st day of January 2020.